December 27, 2011

I cannot believe that another Christmas has come and went. I love Christmas time and I look foward to it every year for many reasons. The reason on the top of my list is the time that I spend with family. This was Erol and I's 4th Christmas as a married couple (i think 8th all time) and it gets better every year!

We traveled on Thursday to Daphne, Alabama through pouring rain and tornado warnings. I thought I was going to die only once or twice. The things we do for family! We spent all weekend and more with our families. It was so much fun to see everyone and celebrate another year together!

On Christmas Eve, we visited with Erol's grandparents and went to Mass. After Mass we had a wonderful dinner with my parents, brother, sister in-law, and Erol's mom at my parents house. The dinner included a salad, steak, lobster, and twice baked potatoes. My parents really out did themselves as usual.

After dinner, we opened our gifts to each other. As with every year, our parents bought us too much! But, we are so thankful for everything!

Look at all those gifts!﻿

Erol is really happy about his gift card!﻿

These are my gifts... So many of them!﻿

The newlyweds﻿

The not-so newlyweds﻿

Of course, we didn't forget about AnnaBelle! She had a present to open too!﻿

On Christmas Day, we had breakfast and coffee with my parents before heading over to Erol's Aunt and Uncle's house. There, we had lunch, played many games and had a great time! It is so great to get everyone together again.

That night, we had "poker night" at my parents with our neighbors, the Mockels. Erol showed off his new poker chips set and his poker skills. Needless to say, we were exhausted!

I hope that everyone had as great of a Christmas as we did! I can't believe another year is gone but I am looking forward to what 2012 will bring!

December 6, 2011

Since I last posted on here, there has been a lot going on! Thanksgiving came and went as we were super busy with family, shopping, a baby shower, and football. What else can you cram into a holiday, huh? Craziness.

On Thanksgiving, we had the whole family over to our house for lunch. We had a crowd of about 12, I think. This is not what I am used to, that's for sure! The food was great and we had plenty of places for everyone to sit. Phew!

The Friday after Thanksgiving was good bonding time for the ladies in our family. We woke up at 5:00 a.m. (and I am not exaggerating) to hit the shopping mall by 6:00. We met my aunt, Rebecca, there and boy does she like a bargain! We shopped until about 2:00 that afternoon and crashed on the couch for the rest of the day and night. Everyone always asks me if it is truly worth it and my answer is always... "Not really" haha! But it's a tradition. And that tradition will continue...

Then, on the following Saturday, we started our day hosting a baby shower at The Club for my cousin, Claire, and her new baby boy on the way, Sam Nolan. We had about 18 people there. The food was great and the view was even more amazing. Here are some pictures I took (or stole from Claire's blog :)

The mommy with her 2 year old daughter, Delaney﻿

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That afternoon, we had to rush home to watch the much anticipated Iron Bowl which ended very well for the Crimson Tide! The whole family watched it at our house and celebrated our victory!

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and exhausting at the same time. I can't believe another Thanksgiving has come and gone and that Christmas is just right around the corner! I need to get to shopping... AGAIN!

November 14, 2011

Well, the past two weeks have been busy but I just can't see to remember what we have been doing! November is flying by and I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week!

I just wanted to give you a quick update on what's been going on... We have mourned the loss of the Game of the Century as well as our first (and only) playoff game for kickball. Losing is not fun AT ALL! But we will hold our head up high and continue on...

The next two weeks are going to be filled with family, food, and more football! Oh, and shopping! If you know the women in our family, then you will know that we will be starting our Christmas shopping at around 3:00 in the morning the day after Thanksgiving. If you were planning on shopping for some deals, then you better get to the stores before we do!

I am also throwing in a baby shower for cousin, Claire, in between all the excitement! I promise to take pictures of everything this time :)

We wish everyone the best and Happiest Thanksgiving! Eat and sleep all you can and be sure to shop till you drop! I know I will...

November 2, 2011

Since our New York trip two weeks ago, we have been juggling our busy schedule with my first 5k run, a wedding in Pensacola, and Kickball. I know that you have re-read the previous sentence because you did not believe what you read the first time. I ran my very first 5k two Saturdays ago! I was forced persuaded to do it by my husband since it was a benefit for an organization that he is on the junior board. I did not train hardly at all because I first signed up to do the "One Mile Fun Run." Then, I found out that I was the only one signed up for it. Haha! I decided to forego the fun run and just run/walk the 5k. Luckily, my mother-in-law also signed up for it so I was able to have a walking buddy.

I had to walk up the VERY steep mountain that was on the trail. Can you see it? :)﻿

I finished with a record time of 40 minutes! No judging by the crazy runners....

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I still had a lot of fun and I'm glad that I did it. Maybe I will start running more. Maybe not... TBD.

Last weekend, we went to Pensacola for some friends of ours. The wedding was beautiful! I forgot my camera in the car so I had to steal borrow some from their photographer's website.

The happy couple﻿

This is the only proof that I have that we were there. You have to look really hard but me and Erol are in the left-hand corner behind the guy with the goofy smile. Do you see us?

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I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but Erol and I are on a kickball team! Well, I didn't actually sign up for it but I have been summoned to play every game since every team has to have four girls on the team in order to play a game. When girls can't show up, I play. I didn't sign up with Erol because I think the last time I played kickball was in the 4th grade. I did not want to embarrass myself. But, we are having a BLAST playing every week. For a girl who didn't even sign up for this, I sure do get competitive at times.

This Thursday is our last "regular" season kickball game. I think if we win, then we go to playoffs next week. Yes... there are playoffs for kickball. Wish us luck!

After our big game on Thursday, we will be getting mentally prepared for the Game Of The Century on Saturday at 7:00. Only 3 days, 7 hours, and 40 minutes until Alabama vs. LSU kickoff. But, who's counting?

October 17, 2011

This past weekend, we made a quick trip to the City that Never Sleeps... New York City! It was a great weekend get away that was filled with activities! We flew in in late Thursday night and stayed in Astoria near the airport since I had a free Marriott night that needed to be used. We didn't arrive to the hotel until after 10:00 so we just went straight to sleep. We needed a lot of rest before our busy day in the City on Friday.

Friday morning, we rode the Train into Times Square where our hotel was. The weather was not very good as it was extremely foggy and cloudy all day. However, the Intercontinental Hotel was nice and in a great location! We weren't able to check in right away, so we dropped off our bags and headed out to explore the town.

Our first stop was Fifth Avenenue, of course! We walked the streets admiring all the beautiful stores in all their glory! We went in and out of stores admiring the merchandise. We stopped at Zara, Tiffany's, FAO Schwarz, and many other iconic New York stores. We walked and walked and walked until we could not walk anymore and needed something to eat. After a quick bite a nice cafe, we walked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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It is a VERY large museum and our legs were already tired from walking before lunch that after an hour or so I started getting a little anxious to move on to our next stop. But, while at the Museum, we saw some great paintings and sculptures. I'm glad we went!

After the Museum, we stolled around Central Park. This was my first time in the Park an I was amazed at how calm and serene it is! I couldn't believe how quiet it was with all the craziness going on around it! It was truly a beautiful park.

At the end of our journey through Central Park, we stopped by the John Lennon "Imagine" Memorial.

And John Lennon's apartment where he was shot and killed...

Friday night, we met up with a good friend of mine for dinner and drinks before our show. It was so good to see Mike in NYC!

We saw the Broadway musical, Memphis after dinner. It was a really fun and entertaining show. The actors were really amazing!﻿

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﻿After the show we went to Times Square to take some of the usual "tourist" pictures.

Saturday, we started the day with a very tasty complimentary breakfast at our hotel to give us energy to walk the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan. It was VERY windy on Saturday and a little chilly but the views made it all worth while...

At the end of the Brooklyn Bridge we decided to head to Soho for some more shopping! I personally LOVED Soho! There were so many shops that I loved: Michael Kors, Tibi, Scotch & Soda, etc, etc, and etc... We had lunch at a local pizza place called Lambardi's. The long wait was totally worth it because the pizza was Amazing!

After lunch we headed back to Midtown and stopped by Bryant Park for a nice glass of wine...

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﻿And the New York Public library just because...

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Saturday night, we went to the Ainsworth bar where the New York City Alabama Alumni Society meet to watch football games. You wouldn't believe how crowded it was with Alabama Alumni! I was amazed. We decided not to stay after waiting in line at the bar for several hours minutes. I mean, we could do this back in Tuscaloosa and I did NOT want to spend another New York minute in an overly crowded bar. We still had an hour or so before dinner, so we found a small bar that had one T.V. They changed the channel to the Bama game just for us! The people at this bar were so friendly that it was hard to leave. But I was hungry so we went to went to a Tapas restaurant called Boqueria for dinner. The food was pretty good and the atmosphere was great.

After dinner we went to a very small Jazz Club called Smalls (the name was given for the obvious reason). I think Erol was in heaven since the lead musician at this club that night was a well-know drummer. Just after midnight, we headed back to the hotel. What a fun night we had!

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Sunday, we woke up and went to the noon Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. This church was absolutely beautiful! It was packed with Christians from all over the world coming together for Mass. What a beautiful experience!

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﻿Mike met up with us again after Mass for lunch before we had to head to the airport. We had an amazing weekend in NYC. Erol and I both thought it was a lot of fun and we vowed to return sooner than later. I loved how busy the City was at all hours of the day. It's a great place to visit for a long weekend but I'm very glad to come home to a more quiet, less busy City of Birmingham, Alabama...

September 27, 2011

This weekend was a very eventful and fun weekend! Friday night, our friends, Nick and Mindy, came to stay with us from Nashville. We got up early on Saturday morning to head to Tuscaloosa to see our favorite team play! We parked at April's house (Erol's sister) and had a great, but too short visit, with her before heading to a couple friends' tailgates on the quad. Unfortunately, the batteries in my phone died RIGHT when we got to Tuscaloosa. So, have no pictures from the day.

The weather was absolutely beautiful while tailgating but the sun was miserable while we were at the game. Besides the fact that I was uncontrollably sweating, the game was awesome as we pulled out our first SEC victory!

Bring on the Gators...

Then, on Sunday we had a delicious sushi lunch with Nick and Mindy and then headed to the Vulcan for some music. A few times a year, the Vulcan hosts bands on its lawn and sells hot pizza and cold beer. Couldn't be better! The weather was amazing as well as the view. We hung out with our friends, Liz and Justin there too!

September 20, 2011

We were so sad to leave Kusadasi on Saturday to fly back to Istanbul for our last night. We had the BEST time with Aunt Deniz, Askin, Selin, and Grandma! Deniz and Askin did SO much for us... you wouldn't believe how much they did to make sure that we had the time of our lives. And that we did! We miss everyone terribly and wish that we could make more frequent trips to visit them.

Turkey is the most fascinating country I have been to and I could not have had a better partner-in-crime than Erol. We will forever remember the awesome trip and all of the people that we met along the way. And we will never forget the hospitality that Aunt Deniz and Uncle Askin showed us during our stay. They are the BEST!!!

It took us a few days to recover from the time change and to adjust to our "normal" schedule of work and laundry and cleaning up the house :( However, the thing that made us happy was to return to the U.S. at the beginning of football season! I do have to say, that I was NOT prepared for football season this year. Before it started, I said that I was not ready for my Saturdays to revolve around football and I said that I will NOT be upset about any games this year... that is in the past for me!

Well, let me tell you how long that lasted... about twelve minutes into the first game we saw on T.V! Then, I was right back to cheering, worrying, and yelling at the very stupid and totally blind refs! Ahhhhhh... it gets me every time!

This weekend we are heading to Tuscaloosa for the game and couldn't be more excited! We have two of our very good friends, Nick and Mindy, coming into town to tailgate with us on Saturday. I'm ready for some cold beer, barbeque, and Alabama Football! Can't wait!

September 19, 2011

The next two days were spent on a side trip to the Greek Island of Samos. We were SO excited about going to Greece! We took a ferry from Kusadasi to Samos that lasted only an hour and a half or so.

Erol and Selin look very excited :)

We took some great pictures on the ferry ride.﻿

Entering the port in Samos﻿

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When we arrived at Samos, we drove to the area of the Island to meet up with friends of Askin's and to check into our hotel. This area was called Pythagorion. For all of you nerds out there, you will be super excited to hear that this is the place that Pythagoras was from. For all you not-so-nerdy people, you may be thinking that name sounds familiar. Well, if you remember from Sophomore year Geometry, Pythagoras was a mathematician who came up with the Pythagorian theorem. You know... "a2 + b2 = c2"??!!

The town was super cute with cafe's and bars along side the port. We spent most of our time in this area.

View from the hotel balcony﻿

Memorial to Pythagoras﻿

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For lunch, we went up into the mountains of Samos to a small town that I can't remember the name of. The food was delicious and view were even better!

Us with Grandma﻿

Us with Askin and Selin...﻿

After lunch, we headed to a beach on the island for some relaxing time in the sun. The interesting part of the beaches on this island is that it was made of rocks... not sand! Us sensitive feet people needed shoes to walk around the beach, but that's ok! I took a very peaceful nap on my beach chair...

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That night, we met up with Askin's friends for drinks and then dinner. The restaurant was on the beach and our table was practically in the water. I LOVED it! I thought "this is how we should dine all the time!"﻿ The food was incredibly fresh. We had octopus and red snapper that is to.die.for. For drinks, we had bottle after bottle of Ouzo. This drink is very similar to the Turkish drink, raki, that I have previously blogged about. Ouzo makes for a very fun night!

Deniz and Erol before dinner﻿

Erol, Askin, and his friend at the restaurant drinking Ouzo﻿

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The next morning, we had breakfast in the town before doing some shopping! I had so much fun looking through all the stores. There was so much that I wanted to buy but I just bought a nice scarf. I can't wait to show it off! For lunch, we had gyros on Askin's friends' boat. This is the life that I want to live!

We were very tired at the end of the day and after the ferry ride back to Kusadasi that evening. We had dinner at Askin's hotel and then went to sleep before our last day in Kusadasi...